At least 37 people were injured in a fiery gas explosion in the central Paris on Wednesday, which brought hundreds of firefighters to the area.
According to Paris police chief Laurent Nunez, 270 firefighters were sent to the scene near Rue Saint Jacques in the city’s fifth arrondissement, and they were able to put out the fire.
Officials report that rescuers are searching for at least two people believed to be missing in the rubble and that four people are still in critical condition.
Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister for France, said from the blast site, “It’s possible that we will find dead bodies tonight, or we will find them alive.”
He added: “There was no alarm sent out before the incident.” Investigators still don’t know how the gas explosion happened.
Early indications, according to the Paris prosecutor who is looking into the incident, point to the gas explosion coming from inside the Paris American Academy building.
Laure Beccuau who visited to the scene, said that the investigators would rely heavily on the accounts of the injured people.
Videos show that after the explosion and fire, a section of the building collapsed. Earlier on Wednesday, as firefighters attempted to put out the fire, smoke could be seen rising from the rubble.
Following the explosion, Kent State University in the US state of Ohio reported that all of its students at the Paris American Academy are safe and accounted for.
In the aftermath of the explosion, locals were also prevented by authorities from going back to their homes in nearby streets.
One woman who wished to remain anonymous, and who lives down the street, told reporters that the explosion caused her doors to slam shut.
A gas explosion in the area is what caused the impact, according to a later tweet from the city’s deputy mayor Édouard Civel.
Later on Wednesday, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo went to the scene and tweeted, “My thoughts go first of all to the victims and their close ones.”
To handle the fallout from the explosion, authorities in Paris have established an emergency response unit.
Source-CNN
